Once a Maverick

by Raine Cantrell

  But within her dark eyes was hunger. And it made him ache to see desire touched with curiosity. Emotions he couldn’t name seethed through him.

  Shaking with need, Dixie lifted her hands to cup his hair-rough cheeks. “I didn’t ask you to make any promises, Ty. And,” she whispered, slowly drawing his head down to hers, “just to keep things even between us, I won’t make any promises to you.”

  Her heart raced when he moved like lightning to close his mouth over hers. If she had made even the smallest struggle, given a token protest, Ty swore he would have let her go.

  But she rose on tiptoe to fit her body against his. He buried his surprise. She claimed innocence. He did not want to doubt her. No man…Ty didn’t want to think about it.

  His lady with a smile like an angel and the touch to make his blood heat came to him like a storm to a thirsty land. No coyness. No retreat. Just a generous passion that made him ache.

  He wanted to be gentle with her.

  She wouldn’t let him.

  There was raw heat. Exactly what he had remembered and needed. The taste of her filled him but never eased the craving, it only intensified it. She was as slim and as supple as any man could want. But there was strength here, too. Her arms locked around him, her fingers clutching his head, just the way his held hers.

  She opened for him. He took what she offered and demanded more.

  The low, deep sound of approval vibrated in his throat. Dixie heard it and answered with one of her own. She could have stopped the madness. Should have. But there was such power in his kiss, such strength in his arms holding her that she wanted more. Later she would think. Much later.

  Like a raging river, her blood raced to the beat of her heart. She pressed closer to the lean, hard length of him. His hair was thick and damp, her fingers tangled deeper to hold him. With the mad beating of her heart came a strange weakness flooding her. The tremors started in her legs and burned their way upward until she felt as if she were shaking from the inside out.

  An emptiness ached inside her. Hunger to be loved spread. Her body yearned for his. Even as he gentled the fierce kisses, she knew the risk she took. Ty was a man to share with, more than passion. She fought hard to bury the hope that rose. The pain would be too much. It was easier, far easier to let the passion storming her senses sweep her on its tide.

  Murmuring her name, Ty ran his hands over her with greedy speed to touch, to take and possess. He tore his mouth from hers to press it against her throat. He felt the bite of her fingers into his shoulders, and she arched back, moaning when he placed his hungry mouth on her heated skin.

  He wanted her now. No. He realized he needed her now. The same way he needed food and rest after a hard day’s labor. The same way he needed water after a vicious day in the desert. He stroked her spine and found the tiny pulse in the hollow of her throat, pressing kisses there in an effort to slow himself down.

  The leash he held on his control was slipping. Ty fought to keep it. He pulled back. She was beautiful, her hair loose and tumbling into his hands, gold strands glinting in the sun. Her eyes were dark with passion. And her mouth—lips slightly parted, full and red from his kisses. Waiting.

  She remained pliant in his arms and he leaned close to kiss her lips, slanting his head and nipping lightly. He felt her tremble. His arms shifted slightly, subtly moving her closer without making her feel trapped. Each breath was labored, but he noticed that hers were the same. And against her lips, Ty smiled, knowing he wasn’t alone in what was happening between them.

  Dixie opened her eyes and watched him with an intensity that she didn’t quite understand. Every harsh breath that he took, every movement of his body against her own, each touch of his fingers against her sensitive skin, sent new shivers of awareness through her.

  She needed more from him. She needed, yet couldn’t ask. The need itself was frightening, for it seemed to seethe through her. His eyes were almost black with the passion that stained his high cheekbones. She followed his gaze as he eased back from her. Damp from his skin, her cotton shirt clung to the erect tips of her breasts.

  “Ty?”

  He looked up and saw the small spark of fear in her eyes. “It’s all right, Angel. You just set a fire that burns all the way to the soles of my feet.”

  His wholly male, hot smile confused her. “That’s something good? I burn like that, too. Inside I—”

  His kiss stole her words. Long fingers tangled in her hair, bending her head back and arching her body so that her breasts pressed against his hard chest. His other hand slid down to her hips, lifting her into the cradle of his thighs, rocking her slowly over the hot, erect male flesh that strained against the buttons of his pants. In the same sensuous stroking of his tongue, his powerful body moved against her. Ty found his quick reward as Dixie returned those sensuous rhythms to him with her tongue, her body.

  When he felt the wild tremblings that shook her, he released her, rocking her against him. He tried to tell himself to go slower, that she was innocent, even if she came apart with the feelings riding both of them. Ty couldn’t stop stroking her body, easing his way over her breasts to find the sensitive peaks.

  Her back arched in a reflex as old as passion itself and he didn’t have to ask if his touch pleased her. Her breath was a near moan, her eyes had drifted closed and her lips were parted.

  He caressed the hard tips that rose to his touch, wanting the thin cloth gone, wanting to feel her flesh against his.

  “Ty, please…”

  Her voice was husky, another caress to burn through his control. He opened the buttons on her shirt, drawing her against him.

  She felt vulnerable and exposed as she had never been with any man. She shook her head, sending tendrils of long hair whispering across her shoulders. Ty gently brushed it back.

  “No,” he said quietly. “I want to see you against my skin.” His hands tightened on her back and he gently abraded his chest against her breasts. He heard her broken sounds as she tilted her head back and caught her when she couldn’t stand on her own.

  Ty steadied her even as he lowered her to the ground. “It’s all right, Angel,” he murmured, kissing her throat, nipping her ear delicately and making her shiver. He lay on his side, one hand cupping her head, the other spanning her rib cage.

  Dixie saw that he looked at her with heated approval in his eyes. She felt weak at the fire and pleasure that was spreading through her. There were no lies between them and that made her brave enough to reach out to touch the soft, curling hair on his chest. She heard the hiss of Ty’s breath come swiftly, suddenly, and her hand stilled.

  “No. Don’t stop,” he said huskily, leaning over to steal a quick, hard kiss. “Touch me, Angel. As much as you want. That’s how I’m going to touch you.”

  Dixie’s fingers tightened. His hand cupped her breast. Before she could ask him what he meant, his lips trailed a string of molten kisses across her sensitive flesh. The heat of his mouth was added to the warmth of the sunlight and a sheen of sweat dampened her skin. She cried out as her nipple became more erect beneath the moist caress of his tongue. Filled with the wild pleasure he was giving her, she held his head hard against her breast. Her breath came out a ragged moan when he responded with a taut, hungry suckling.

  Ty was drowning in the sun-sweet scent of her. She was warm and slender and her taste was enough to drive a man over any lines of reason. Beneath his lips he could feel the race of her heart, a beat wild enough to match his. Her hair smelled of the water, and he heard his name cried in a desperate whisper as she pressed her lips to his head.

  There was no plea. No soft cry. Dixie understood that softness had no place here. Innocent, yes, but she knew this was raw, primitive passion that they brought to each other. His mouth tightened over her breast, hot and greedy, and need erupted and shattered her.

  She lay dazed as Ty shifted and used lips, teeth and tongue to draw another cry, a deeper tremble from her. She was filled with hungers that had no names. He
r hips moved in the same wild rhythms of his mouth tugging at her. Wave after wave of pleasure spilled through her. His right hand caressed her other breast, his thumb brushing the taut peak so that she arched her back with a sensual abandon she had never known.

  Naked skin slicked over naked skin when he found her mouth with his. She felt his groan of pleasure, as well as heard it. There was no time for thought. Fire burned, hot and fast as they raced over each other in a mutual burning discovery.

  He tugged her arms free of her shirt, she fumbled to open the few buttons on his denims. Her fingers traced the long scar from his hip to his thigh. A murmur of pain escaped her as if the scar and its pain were her own.

  Ty found how strong she was when she bore him back to the ground, her lips racing over him, pressing kisses to his scar, only to retrace a path of fire until she joined her mouth with his. He cupped her buttocks, pressing her against him, and she melted and ran like hot honey.

  He rolled her over, pulling back to work her pants off. Ty tossed them aside and stroked from her trembling thighs to her ankles. Her skin was almost milk white against his darker, tanned hands. He looked up to see that she reached for him, her gaze both demanding and vulnerable.

  “Please, Ty, I feel so…”

  “Naked?” he finished for her. “Me, too.” And he rose to strip off his pants, making it a fact. “Now there’s nothing between us,” he whispered, once more coming to lay beside her.

  “I want to touch you,” she murmured, restlessly turning. The desire she saw in his eyes took her breath.

  “And I dreamed of feeling those hands on me. But not now, Angel. Later you can touch all you want.”

  “Ty—” What she longed to demand ended in a helpless moan. He touched her bare stomach, her thighs and pressed gently at the apex of her legs. Dixie was too aroused to be shy, she shifted her legs for him, but she refused to close her eyes. She wanted to see him, needed to know why this one man made her feel surrender wasn’t losing but winning. A gamble. One she had never taken. Never been tempted to take. But she would for Ty. And with him. If she was yielding to the emotions that churned inside her, he was no less involved.

  She clung to him, the gentle, clever ply of his fingertips arousing her to a new level of need, one of more intense pleasure, but one that showed her new hunger. Time and again she cried out to him while he held off that last, ultimate joining. She heard his whispered praise and watched him with eyes dazed with passion. His face was taut, faint high color stained his cheeks and his eyes blazed with desire as he touched her.

  A whimper caught in her throat. She dug her fingers into his arms, wanting to drive him to that last intimate joining, terrified of where he would take her, even as she stirred restlessly beneath him in invitation. His mouth feasted on hers, then sought aching flesh.

  He knew he wasn’t gentle enough. His mouth was too greedy for the taste of her. His blood pounded with her sweetly given response, the arched invitation of her body up to his, the fierce kneading motion of her hands that held him against her. Her long, throaty moans followed one after the other, sending a pleasure he had never known streaming through him.

  He knew he wasn’t giving her enough time. Hunger refused to allow him to give her respite. Every muscle trembled in his body when he took her mouth again, delving deeply with his tongue. Ty settled himself deeper in the cradle of her hips, swallowing her gasp, then her cry as he plunged into her.

  Dixie jerked her head to one side. There was an incredible stretching fullness that burned through passion’s fire. He subtly shifted and she turned her head, sinking her teeth into his shoulder to bury the scream that rose.

  Ty went tense and still above her.

  “No,” she whispered as he lifted his head to look at her.

  He braced himself above her and stared down into her face. His groin tightened. He had to lick his lips against their sudden dryness. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  “I know that, Ty.” Dixie reached up with one hand to touch the bite mark she had left on his shoulder. “Now you have two wounds. I never meant to hurt you, either.”

  “I’ll make this good for you, Angel. I promise I will.” Don’t tell me to stop. The words went no further than his mind. Nothing could feel this good. Nothing had ever given him so much pleasure. He wanted to settle his weight on her, wanted to burrow his face in the soft, fragrant hollow between her neck and her shoulder.

  Her fingertips rose to touch his lips. Holding his gaze steady with her own, she said, “No promises, remember, Ty.”

  “I remember.” But the words were low, gritty and hinted of his longing to recall them. Because he suddenly wanted promises. He wanted to hear her whisper that she was his. That no man…

  He lost his thought with the feel of her supple hands riding his back. He held his breath as she touched his hip, her eyes closing, a soft smile playing on her lips.

  “Dixie?”

  “It’s all right now,” she whispered. To make him understand what she couldn’t explain, she used both hands to trace the lean, hard muscles of his thighs. His belly convulsed in reflex. She held his hips and murmured, “Kiss me, Ty. I want to feel the pleasure that came before the pain.” To reinforce her demand, she ran her hands along his thighs, then cupped the hard curves of his buttocks to draw him deeper inside her.

  “Yes…that,” she moaned. “I want—”

  “No. That’s not what you want, Dixie. Say my name. Say you want me deeper inside you. Say it’s me you need now.”

  She struggled with the words, dragging in shallow breaths as he slowly penetrated deeper, then as slowly began to withdraw.

  “No!” she cried out.

  “Then say it,” he demanded once again. And Ty discovered what hell felt like. The tight resistance that gloved his flesh seemed to stroke him with every ragged breath she drew.

  “Ty, please.” She barely managed a subtle shift of her legs. The sudden, grinding, circular motion of his hips robbed her of breath. She couldn’t close her eyes. She stared up at his face looming over her and saw the sweat bead as he held himself still and waited. He was dark, almost savage looking, his eyes near black and making the same silent demand.

  “I want you,” she cried in a broken whisper. “I want you inside me. You, Ty. Only you.”

  He began to move, rubbing his open mouth over hers to drink her pleasure cry.

  Dixie closed her eyes. She drew in the scent of the crushed grass beneath her. Heat seared her body inside and out as she stroked his skin warmed by the sun. He quickened his pace, pressing into her, and she knew his control had snapped. There was a wildness to his thrusts, as if he had no thought but to take possession of her. She listened to his harsh breathing and the faint peal of distant thunder. But its rumbling was no match for the racing beat of her heart.

  And his.

  Her head thrashed back and forth. Tension built and spiraled into unbearable need. She cried out his name in both plea and demand.

  She listened to the harshness of Ty’s breathing.

  And her own.

  She thought of the powerful, hard strength of his body and her own helplessness against it. Pleasure caught her in rhythm that was wild, deep…hot.

  She was burning.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  Complete surrender. Nothing held back. Ty offered what he was asking from her.

  “Now…it has to be—” Ty bit off the words. The tension exploded, shattered.

  “Hold me!” she cried out.

  He gathered her into his arms as pleasure so intense showered her with feelings that left her stunned.

  “Mine,” he whispered as tremors claimed him.

  No! she denied in silence as she trembled with her own fulfillment.

  Chapter Thirteen

  As if he had heard that silent denial, Ty reared his head back and stared down at her face. Her eyes were closed, shutting him out. He had claimed the secrets of her body, but not her heart or her mind.

  No prom
ises, remember? He blocked out the reminder he had to forget. The rules had changed.

  Slowly he lowered his head to nuzzle his lips against hers. He stroked the tangled strands of her hair back from her face, then framed her cheeks with his palms.

  “Look at me, Angel. I want to see for myself if you’re all right.”

  In blissful lassitude Dixie murmured soft sounds, unwilling to be torn from the exquisite pleasure that still radiated through her.

  “Did I hurt you?” Ty asked, hearing a tremor he could not control ride his voice. She had not moved, yet he felt her withdrawing from him. The sudden anger caught him by surprise. He let his arms take his weight as he braced himself above her. It was agony to separate himself from her, for he could still feel the tiny shivers that rocked her body.

  He lay beside her, flinging one arm up to shield his eyes and wondered how something that felt so good, so right, had gone so wrong. The fault was his. A woman deserved soft words, gentle touches and he had fallen on her like a man starved for sustenance. He’d always had a way with women. It was one thing that he shared with his oldest brother, Conner. Not so with Logan. He was a hard man to please and swore he’d never marry. Ty agreed with his middle brother.

  He’d sworn never to marry, too. Marry? Where the devil had that thought come from? Irrational as it was, he moved his arm to his side and turned to look at Dixie, knowing it was somehow her fault for the direction of his thoughts.

  Cause and blame fled the moment he saw the tears sliding down her cheeks. She didn’t make a sound, but he had a feeling these weren’t tears of joy she shed.

  “Dixie?” He curved his hand over her cheek, turning her face toward him. “I should be shot for what I’ve done to you. I swear I’ll make it up to you, only don’t shut me out. I couldn’t deal with that now.”

  His thumb brushed the tears from her cheek while he waged a battle with himself. He knew the perils of the territory, had survived brushes with death, but he stood in peril of losing his heart to this one spirited, lovely woman he needed to claim as his.